Photography - Overview
The millions of photographs in the Museum's collections compose a vast mosaic of the nation's history. Photographs accompany most artifact collections. Thousands of images document engineering projects, for example, and more record the steel, petroleum, and railroad industries.
Some 150,000 images capture the history, art, and science of photography. Nineteenth-century photography, from its initial development by W. H. F. Talbot and Louis Daguerre, is especially well represented and includes cased images, paper photographs, and apparatus. Glass stereographs and news-service negatives by the Underwood & Underwood firm document life in America between the 1890s and the 1930s. The history of amateur photography and photojournalism are preserved here, along with the work of 20th-century masters such as Richard Avedon and Edward Weston. Thousands of cameras and other equipment represent the technical and business side of the field.
"Photography - Overview" showing 3 items.
Family Photo Album
- Description
- Family photograph albums hold the history of generations, preserving the memories of birthdays, holidays, travels, and all general aspects of life. African American Mary Taylor used her 35mm Bell and Howell camera to document her family's life in the black community of Los Angeles, California, during the mid-20th century. She turned a discarded wallpaper sample book into a treasured family heirloom.
- Taylor's family photographs including 19th-century tintypes, turn-of-the-century hand-colored portraits, and albums from the 1950s to the 1970s provide insight into the African American experience in the United States over the past century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Taylor, Mary A.
- ID Number
- 2002.0103.02
- accession number
- 2002.0103
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of War, Volume 1
- Description
- Volume I and Volume II of Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War was published in 1866. Each album contains fifty photographs of different scenes of the Civil War and is accompanied by text written by Gardner. These are rare books, each produced by hand. Just a few sets were sold as they were very costly to produce and, after the Civil War, many Americans were looking forward, trying to move on from the death and destruction of the war.
- Alexander Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1821. Before coming to America in 1856, he was trained as a jeweler and a chemist, but was more interested in the fairly new invention of photography. After immigrating to New York, he worked for Mathew Brady in his photographic studios in New York and Washington, D.C. After disagreeing with Brady over the photographer's rights to receive credit for their pictures, he left that studio in and started his own business in 1862 in Washington, DC, where his most famous subject was Abraham Lincoln. Gardner not only took the last posed photograph of Lincoln in February of 1865, but also photographs of his funeral and the hanging of the conspirators in his assassination. Besides Lincoln, Gardener also took pictures of Supreme Court Justices, visiting delegates, and other government figures.
- During the Civil War, Gardner became a photographer for the Army of the Potomac. He took pictures of not only non-battle scenes, such as military camps, but also the immediate aftermath of battles. He later combined his photographs of the war with those of his staff photographers, and wrote the two-volume book, Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, for which he became most famous. Gardner died in 1882 in Washington, D.C.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1866
- maker
- Gardner, Alexander
- ID Number
- 1986.0711.0334
- accession number
- 1986.0711
- catalog number
- 1986.0711.0334
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War. Volume 2
- Description
- Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War was published in 1866. Each of the two albums contains fifty photographs of different scenes of the Civil War and is accompanied by text written by Gardner. These are rare books, each produced by hand. Just a few sets were sold as they were very costly to produce and, after the Civil War, many Americans were looking forward, trying to move on from the death and destruction of the war.
- Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1821. Before coming to America in 1856, he was trained as a jeweler and a chemist, but was more interested in the fairly new invention of photography. After immigrating to New York, he worked for Mathew Brady in his photographic studios in New York and Washington, DC. In 1862, after disagreeing with Brady over photographers' rights to receive credit for their pictures, he left his studio and started his own business in Washington, DC, where his most famous subject was Abraham Lincoln. Gardner took not only the last posed photograph of Lincoln in February 1865, but also photographs of his funeral and the hanging of the conspirators in his assassination. He also took pictures of other government figures such as Supreme Court Justices and visiting delegates.
- During the Civil War, Gardner became a photographer for the Army of the Potomac, taking pictures of not only non-battle scenes, such as military camps, but also the aftermath of battles that had just taken place. He later combined his photographs of the war with those of his staff photographers and published the two-volume book Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, for which he became most famous. Gardner died in 1882 in Washington, DC.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1866
- maker
- Gardner, Alexander
- ID Number
- 1986.0711.0283
- accession number
- 1986.0711
- catalog number
- 1986.0711.0283
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center